Sub Sector System Scanning and Exploration

[Youonlylivetwice]

I'm wondering how people handle exploration in basic Traveller.

My campaign isn't strict canon, and centers around a system in a subsector that is on the fringe of the Imperium bordering totally uncharted territory. I now want to start exploring that uncharted area, but I'm unsure how much rudimentary mapping could be done in advance of any vessels setting off.

For example, would it be feasible to at least 'map' the existence of neighborouring systems even though no ships have ever gone there (i.e. using basic astronomic observation)? And how much could be learnt? The presence of gas giants in a system? Also, how far could in terms of hexes could basic information such as that mentioned above extend?

Any comments appreciated.

 

[rancke]

Leviathan has player maps that show the location of unexplored star systems, but no information about what is in the systems. (I do not vouch for how realistic that is; not very, is my guess).

Incidentally, Leviathan to the contrary notwithstanding, having unexplored systems right next door to settled systems is pretty damn implausible. By the time settlers have moved into the regions explored by the previous generation, the present generation will have had explorers all over the next bit of empty space for decades.

So before your explorers get to the completely unknown star systems, they should have a belt of empty systems with some prior information available to pass through.


Hans

 

[BytePro]

Yeah - while generally can't see established systems having adjacent unexplored systems except if there is a political imperative that prevented such... or TL limits in the region. More believable would be that exploration was done, but the information is not available for whatever socio-, politico-, technical or business reasons...

Astronomically, I would expect most major orbital bodies of even more distant systems to be known. However, light speed limits mean that data will be dated by distance. Also, extremely odd situations could prevent ready detection via distance means. EM Spectrum data will tend to yield a lot of resource information, but can be obscured by planetary atmos or distance from system stars (and less so by interstellar gases and more exotic things that would likely have affected the established systems).

 

[Youonlylivetwice]

Thanks Hans. I've taken a very quick look at Leviathan, (I have it on the FFE disk but still haven't made my way through most of the Traveller material on it), and although much of the Subsector is commercially unexplored, it has been investigated by the Navy and/or Scout Service. I'm envisaging a situation where no exploration has been conducted.

Totally agree with your point about it being unlikely a settled (and in my case high TL) system would be just a few parsecs from completely unknown territory. I'm planning to have a rift between the two areas

Simon

 

[Rigel Stardin]

The only point I can make at this moment is the location of the stars have been mapped by the scout service. They would take several plots from along the frontier in different systems to make a star chart of the unexplored area.

 

[mike wightman]

Since you have the FFE disc check the Zhodani Alien module - the adventure in the back gives rules for scanning systems from several parsecs away.

 

[McPerth]

IIRC, the Aslan AM in CT had also rules about that (quite similar to the ones in Leviatan, if not outright the same, IIRC too) in the adventure on it.

 

[aramis]

Since you have the FFE disc check the Zhodani Alien module - the adventure in the back gives rules for scanning systems from several parsecs away.

So does aslan.

 

[travlar]

Leviathan has player maps that show the location of unexplored star systems, but no information about what is in the systems. (I do not vouch for how realistic that is; not very, is my guess).

Incidentally, Leviathan to the contrary notwithstanding, having unexplored systems right next door to settled systems is pretty damn implausible. By the time settlers have moved into the regions explored by the previous generation, the present generation will have had explorers all over the next bit of empty space for decades.

So before your explorers get to the completely unknown star systems, they should have a belt of empty systems with some prior information available to pass through.


Hans

Although if you do want nearby colonized systems, you might be able to have a rift or whatever that they only just got the technology to cross. Not sure how plausible that is, though, since carrying extra fuel for a second jump, or deep space fuel caches if necessary can allow it sooner, if it's important enough.

 

[BlackBat242]

Of course there could be an interstellar fog bank ... er... dust cloud concealing the system from all explored/settled systems. That way you just need a J2 ship to punch through and see what's on the other side.


Sorry... all that talk of Space 1999 and The Starlost in RS made me flashback to the only episode of the Lost in Space TV series I saw (apparently 3rd season, as they are actually in space) ... where Robby comes into the control room waving his arms and repeating 'Danger, Will Robinson"... and John (Will's father), rather than ask Robbie what he has detected, or checking the ship's instruments, goes to the small viewport and looks out. He then rubs on it with his sleeve, while Maureen (his wife) asks "What is it, John?"... to which he replies "I can't tell... there's some sort of fog on the viewport!".

Sigh...

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Not quite.

/snippage/

Sorry... all that talk of Space 1999 and The Starlost in RS made me flashback to the only episode of the Lost in Space TV series I saw (apparently 3rd season, as they are actually in space) ... where Robby comes into the control room waving his arms and repeating 'Danger, Will Robinson"... and John (Will's father), rather than ask Robbie what he has detected, or checking the ship's instruments, goes to the small viewport and looks out. He then rubs on it with his sleeve, while Maureen (his wife) asks "What is it, John?"... to which he replies "I can't tell... there's some sort of fog on the viewport!".

Sigh...

If they were Lost in Space, as opposed to Crashed on Dirtball, then it is probably 1st season. Two, Robby is the robot from Forbidden Planet. The LIS robot is merely "Robot" or Robot B9 if you wish to get all technical about it.

Yeah, looking out the window with all that tech around you is pretty lame alright. Not that my other fave, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is much better, what with its nuke boat with bigger windows than the ones in my apartment on the bow. But that is Irwin Allen for ya. Fun, yes. Scientifically accurate, not a chance in hell. Well, maybe a chance and it probably happened by accident.

 

[BlackBat242]

If they were Lost in Space, as opposed to Crashed on Dirtball, then it is probably 1st season. Two, Robby is the robot from Forbidden Planet. The LIS robot is merely "Robot" or Robot B9 if you wish to get all technical about it.

Yeah, looking out the window with all that tech around you is pretty lame alright. Not that my other fave, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is much better, what with its nuke boat with bigger windows than the ones in my apartment on the bow. But that is Irwin Allen for ya. Fun, yes. Scientifically accurate, not a chance in hell. Well, maybe a chance and it probably happened by accident.

According to the Wiki article (yes, I know... but I don't care enough to look further) almost all of the episodes of both the 1st and 2nd seasons had the ship crashed on a planet... although a different one in each season (the first handful of Season 2 episodes had them repair the ship and get back into space, only to crash again and spend the rest of the season on dirtball #2).

The 3rd was the only one where most of the episodes had them actually voyaging through space in almost every episode.

 

[scott]

Of course there could be an interstellar fog bank ... er... dust cloud concealing the system from all explored/settled systems.

That's great--I love making Traveller more like old nautical adventures where things are poorly known and dangerous to navigate.

 

[saundby]

Since the OPs question appears to have been answered (exploration rules in the Alien modules), I'll join in on the thread hijack here.

My favorite LIS moment was when they were in space, and everyone aboard was going to suffocate because a bunch of vines on the outside of the ship were "blocking the air vents!"

Geez, why hate the plant? Clearly it's trying to save them if they've got ports open to vacuum!

 

[77topaz]

Since the OPs question appears to have been answered (exploration rules in the Alien modules), I'll join in on the thread hijack here.

My favorite LIS moment was when they were in space, and everyone aboard was going to suffocate because a bunch of vines on the outside of the ship were "blocking the air vents!"

Geez, why hate the plant? Clearly it's trying to save them if they've got ports open to vacuum!

Wow, that's quite a mistake. I suppose this wasn't a popular series?

 

[BlackBat242]

Actually, it was somewhat popular... its just that the writers, directors, producers, cast, etc all knew nothing about science, space, or spacecraft and had no desire to learn!

 

[jedo]

Although if you do want nearby colonized systems, you might be able to have a rift or whatever that they only just got the technology to cross. Not sure how plausible that is, though, since carrying extra fuel for a second jump, or deep space fuel caches if necessary can allow it sooner, if it's important enough.

Or maybe take a page from Farscape/Deep Space 9 and have a newly discovered stable wormhole that connects a known region of space with the middle of an unexplored sector in an unknown part of the galaxy.

 

[Whipsnade]

Or maybe take a page from Farscape/Deep Space 9 and have a newly discovered stable wormhole that connects a known region of space with the middle of an unexplored sector in an unknown part of the galaxy.

That's a very good suggestion and one which has been made - and followed - many, many times before.

 

[DanDare]

Up to about 100 parsecs our far future folks can probably map the presence of all sizeable bodies in a solar system from their living room computer console. Explorers would be determining details like nav hazards, presence of life, and prospecting for energy, metals, and organic volatiles. Maybe checking out detailed gravity nodes like Lagrange points for placing space habitats.

 

[kilemall]

I would assume we could get an idea of what planets are there from at least a few parsecs away, especially after we have actually traveled to some and got experience seeing what is actually there vs. observations possible remotely.

I have IMTU differences that are intended to make for a frontier.

First, I set the max TL to 10, and we are still at Jump-1.

Right away, that means fuel depots out in the boondocks between and two jumps just to get out from Sol.

Fortunately we have Oort clouds, so it's not all tankers expensively hauling fuel out in the middle of nowhere. The Cloud is a major adventure destination in it's own right.

Then, I added the requirement that the gravitic magnetic and other fields impinging upon a jump are thoroughly mapped locally before that area is safe to jump in.

For safe exploration therefore it takes a sub-C expedition to get there first, map it out, then send a jump ship back with the data.

The data eventually goes out of date as conditions change, so systems need to be mapped every few years.

'Claim jumpers' can take their ships and lives in hand and attempt jumps to systems remotely observed, not as dangerous as a sub-10D jump but more dangerous then a sub-100D.

The odds will catch up, but the mapping data can be very valuable to governments and organizations especially if it gives commercial/military/smuggling advantage.

So it does happen, a thin band of worlds on the edge that are marked unexplored but have hardy pioneers and dangerous desperate people out there, unmapped, not wanting to be found and the weapons to make a try at keeping it that way.